New Castle police responded to the Econolodge on Sunday afternoon when they received reports that a man threw a TV through a window.

When officers arrived, the occupant inside was being uncooperative, and they had to get management to open the door with a master key.

When they finally got the man inside to undo the chain lock they found him “standing in the entry to the door with his fists clinched and an aggressive posture, which I knew to be indicative of him wanting to fight,” an officer reported. The visibly intoxicated man, smelling strongly of alcohol, briefly resisted, but officers were able to get him into cuffs.

Both of his hands were injured, and officers found blood smears on the walls and furniture in the hotel room. In a fridge, they found an empty vodka bottle.

Officers had a rough time with the young man, even after getting him into cuffs, as he was resisting arrest, charging at officers and “ranting incoherently.” Asked how much he drank, “he began yelling random decimal numbers, such as 0.13,” the officer reported. As he began to lose consciousness, the officer shook him to keep him awake.

In the patrol car, the young man was trying to kick out the windows. While being transported, he continuously “spit on the barrier and seat of my vehicle,” an officer reported.

While at Valley View Hospital, he continued to be uncooperative with a nurse. “He attempted to stand up a couple of times and I had to push him back into the chair with the assistance of security.”

The young man “became extremely irate,” and as the officer tried to pull him back into his wheelchair, he sunk his teeth into the officer’s right arm.

“I later found that the bite created a bleeding wound with a full set of teeth marks in my arm,” the officer reported. “He was cursing loudly so that he could be heard outside the triage.”

Though a doctor provided a medical clearance slip, the jail wouldn’t consider him medically fit to be booked, the officer reported. “I transported him back to Valley View Hospital where he was sedated for treatment,” the officer reported.

The officer was treated for his wound and eventually left the scene, saying that he would pursue an arrest later.

At about 11 p.m., Glenwood Springs police were called to Valley View for a man who was “spitting on nurses while they attempted to discharge him.”

When the New Castle officer returned, nurses immediately told him that the 20-year-old “had disclosed that he is Hepatitis C positive and I would need to be tested, due to being exposed to his bodily fluids when he bit me,” the New Castle officer reported.

The man was arrested on charges of felony second-degree assault, as well as misdemeanors for second-degree tampering, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest and criminal mischief.

Unwelcome guests grow angry

Early on the morning of Nov. 3, a Silt woman went outside to find her brother-in-law and another man sleeping in her car. She told them to get out, and they ran away.

She and her husband had told the brother-in-law several months before that he wasn’t welcome at their home due to his drug use, she told police.

After she had left the residence, her husband came out of the shower to the sound of his dogs barking and found the two men in the house.

He told them to leave. But the 30-year-old man with the brother-in-law refused. He picked up a pull-up bar and started swinging it at the husband, who feared for himself and his children.

The husband was eventually able to get the bar away from the crazed man and get the intruders out of his house. But while outside, the 30-year-old could still be heard screaming.

He reportedly picked up a pumpkin and used it to smash a living room window. He broke another window of the home and kicked a dent into a truck. After that, the two ran away.

Both men were arrested on Tuesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on felony charges of first-degree burglary, criminal mischief, first-degree trespass and menacing, as well as misdemeanor second-degree trespass. The brother-in-law was arrested on felony first-degree trespass and misdemeanor second-degree trespass.

Parolee arrested in attempted stabbing

Deputies responded to Little Echo Drive in Battlement Mesa Monday afternoon after receiving reports that a 36-year-old man attempted to stab his cousin.

Speaking with the cousin in his yard, a deputy learned that the 36-year-old suspect’s brother had died the previous night.

When the 36-year-old came over with his wife to the cousin’s house, the cousin told him that he was not welcome. The cousin’s wife reported that when the 36-year-old and his wife were at the door, the suspect was taunting his cousin, and they were arguing.

The suspect told his cousin that “he had something for him,” according to an affidavit. The 36-year-old then came close to the door, reached in and grabbed the cousin by his leather vest. He then “grabbed the knife from his hip and lunged at [his cousin] trying to stab [him],” according to an affidavit.

The cousin was able to avoid being stabbed. The cousin’s wife asked why he’d done this, but the suspect only “stepped back on the stoop smiling.” She locked the door and called 911.

When authorities stopped the 36-year-old and his wife in a truck on Interstate 70, the two denied having been at his cousin’s residence, and the sheriff’s sergeant found no knife with them.

A deputy later learned from a parole officer that the 36-year-old was not supposed to leave Mesa County and that he had recently been giving “hot” urinalyses.

He was arrested on felony charges of first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault.

31-year-old arrested in gas tank vandalism

Parachute police were called to Candlewood Suites for criminal mischief the morning of Nov. 24, when a guest reported finding a screwdriver stabbed into his gas tank.

When the owner, a 63-year-old man, went to his vehicle that morning he noticed the puddle of gasoline, and when he looked under the vehicle he found the screwdriver “along with two energy drinks that had the top cut off of them.”

The officer also called in the fire department to clean up gasoline that leaked from the vehicle.

“The gasoline on the ground was an obvious safety hazard and had the owner of the vehicle not noticed the spill and attempted to start the vehicle or brought any other ignition source near the spilled gasoline, it could have easily ignited causing serious bodily injury to whoever was nearby,” an officer reported.

After removing the screwdriver, fire fighters found the hole appeared to have been drilled with a power drill, as they found shavings still on the tank.

Officers later learned that the hotel night manager had a guest come in smelling of gasoline. The hotel manager said the man was still staying at the hotel; in fact, he was outside smoking a cigarette at that time.

When an officer asked him why he smelt of gasoline the night before, he told the officer that his friend’s car, an Acura with California plates, had broken down. Inspecting the vehicle, the officer found what looked and smelled like spilt gasoline near its gas cap.

In the vehicle the officer could see screwdrivers similar to the one found in the other man’s gas tank and the top of an energy drink can.

While arresting the 31-year-old man, the officer found him with a Suboxone, a narcotic and controlled substance. He later said that he had a prescription for the medication but that it was in California.

He was arrested on felony criminal mischief, as well as misdemeanors for possession of a controlled substance and reckless endangerment.

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